After the ABomb
by Idunn
Summary: The main character wakes up confused and lost. Happens after HBP. Snape and Draco on the run, hiding among Muggles. The fist chapter is very short, you better read that to see if you are interested.
1. Chapter 1

I realize that I am awake and open my eyes into the peeping world. Slowly it peeps, but it's creepy. Just as creepy is the sound of someone retching only a few feet away from me and I put my hand against my mouth as I turn my head, but there is a white curtain separating me from that other person.

'Don't worry,' says a voice on my other side, 'he'll be all right.'

I turn my head again and the room spins a little, but I regain myself. I realize that I am in a hospital.

'Do you know where you are?' asks the young man in the white robe.

I nod my head, but don't say anything. My mouth and throat don't feel like working right now. I move my hand away from my lips and place it on my left arm, where there is a tube, and, when I take a look, there is a needle at the end of the tube that penetrates my skin.

I gasp and rip it out, all the while trying to sit up, and kick of the white blanket. The world around me spins and my stomach protests and I buckle over. The young doctor (or is he a nurse, maybe?) gasps as well and grabs around my shoulders and takes the needle away from me, shouting 'no! No no no no!'

I am baffled; why not take out a needle that's stuck deep into your skin? I am breathing heavily now, trying not to throw up, and when the young man begins to explain, I realize that I didn't ask him to. I haven't said a word, and I don't want to. Why bother anyway, when he's going to answer all my unspoken questions?

'This tube gives you nutrition and medicine. If you rip it out like that, you'll not only hurt yourself,' he points out the bloody spot where I took the needle out, 'but you will also not get your medication you need.'

I don't really know what he's talking about, but I don't feel like I need anything more than a good rest. I clear my throat. As I am sitting still now, the sick feeling gone, the doctor/nurse seems to feel an obligation to say something under my gaze.

'I'm Doug Dowly, a nurse here at St. Thomas's. Do you remember why you are here?'

That question came as a total surprise. I guess it shouldn't have, but it did. And I can't say anything. Nurse Dowly swallows. I can now hear people outside the room. These sounds have probably been there since I woke up, but it is only now that I notice them. It's a busy hospital, by the sound of it.

'There was a bomb.'

I just stare blankly at Dowly. He is expecting a reaction from me and I feel uncomfortable not giving it.

'There was a bomb,' he continues, 'many people were hurt.' Pause. 'You were found wandering about the area.'

My eyebrows are knitting, I can feel it.

'You fell unconscious soon afterwards. Your clothes were all burned rags. We had to dispose of them by special means because they were… ah… the radiation levels…'

My face is probably distorted in my pains to try to understand him.

'What?' I say, my voice rasping, and I long for some water or something to drink. Something for my dry throat.

'It was… an atomic bomb.'

I can sense that the silence following that statement is deafening on his side. I have simply no idea what he is talking about and give him my blank stare again. He seems to misinterpret it as fear, as he adds hastily 'but we found no radiation in you yourself! You are completely clean.'

I look down at my arms and my white hospital frock.

'You were not hurt either. No signs of burns anywhere.'

And that's when my alarm starts ringing in my head. I have to get out of there.


	2. Chapter 2

I realize that I am awake at the same time as I realize that someone is looking at me. I also realize that I am sitting in a puddle, and look down. The water is brown and muddy. I look up at the person looking at me and see not one, but two pairs of eyes watching me. A grown man that I hate and a boy my age, maybe 17, that I have the deepest dislike for. I don't recognize them. I don't think I have ever seen them before, but those feelings for them are there anyway. Utter dislike at first glance. The boy looks surprised to see me sitting Indian-style in a mud puddle, but the man has a stony face, betraying no emotion. I scowl at them. I know they don't like me either.

'What are you staring at?' I spurt at them, my face turning hot from dislike, rather than embarrassment. Although that had some say in it as well. 'Never seen… anyone sitting in a puddle before?'

I look down. I feel the oddest malaise going through my whole body before it decides to settle in my stomach to stay. I hardly notice the boy answer my question laughing, before the pair hurries off, because I am too focused on the reason why I had hesitated.

I don't know whether I am a girl or a boy.

I don't dare tap my chest until the two are gone. My puddle is by a country road leading to a town. There are more people coming so I quickly raise my hands to my flat chest, and I am a little surprised to find nothing there. I'm a boy. Why is that surprising? Don't I want to be a boy? Or am I simply more used to grab a females' bust rather than a man's? A female. A girl. Woman? How old am I?

I feel physical pain; this is too much. I sway and see dark spots floating around. I am on my hands and knees now and decide it would be a good thing to crawl out of the puddle and sit down somewhere dry. I don't care that the grass is wet from rain, it's better than the puddle.

The people I had seen are coming up to me now, giving me weird glances. Please go away.

'Are you all right?' asks a concerned woman in her fifties.

I raise my hand and try to regain my breath. I give her and her friend a wave saying 'I'm fine, don't you worry about me, just go on about your stroll.' She doesn't buy it.

'Are you all right?' she asks again, putting emphasis on the 'all right' part.

I nod my head and look up at them. Sitting down I take a deep breath, closing my eyes for a second.

'I'm fine,' I lie, 'I just had an asthma attack. Don't worry.'

My voice sounds rough. I haven't used it for a while. I hope that's what asthma sounds like.

'You sure?'

I nod my head and begin to stand up.

'Don't worry. I'm ok now.'

The ladies still seem concerned, but they leave me anyway. With one last glance back, to make sure that I am really all right, they go on with their business, heading out and away from the town. I decide to go the other way.

Again the fear and malaise seizes me and grabs my stomach. Where am I? Who am I? I look down at my clothes. Very distinguished. Blue-jeans and a white T-shirt. There is a sign on one side of the shirt. Some letters around a cross, I think. I pull at the shirt to stretch it out and try to read the blue letters. St. Thomas's Hospital it says. Oh-kay. Why St. Thomas's?


	3. Chapter 3

3.

The pair of them was struggling to get through the crowd without being seen. The good thing about being in a crowd of Muggles is that no one ever notices anything. Especially when the crowd is excited and afraid, like now. Then their minds are only focused on getting away, not caring about other people. The bad thing about it is that you can easily lose sight of each other. And that was what was happening to Draco Malfoy. Being no taller than the people in the crowd, Draco had to crane his neck to see around him. He tried standing on his toes, but lost his balance when Muggles rushed past him, pushing him out of their way.

He swore under his breath. But just then he saw to his left, his protector's head sailing away, towards a corner on the road. He pushed and squeezed himself between a fat Muggle and an anorexic one, both wide-eyed and pale, calling somebody's name. Going against the stream was not easy, but he made it to Professor Snape's side again, just in time to enter the door of their motel apartment with him. Once inside, the door locked, he sat down on the old sofa, exhausted.

'Man, those people are crazy,' he said, running a hand through his hair.

Professor Snape gave him a look.

'An atomic bomb went off. Of course they're afraid.'

He took off his coat and hung it inside a closet, then sat down by the table, looking at Draco who was in a bad mood.

'Someone detonated an atomic bomb in the middle of nowhere, close to a small unimportant town. Of course they're afraid.'

'Whatever.'

Draco began to take his jacket off.

'You have to learn how to walk through crowds,' Snape suddenly said, changing the subject. 'You almost lost me.'

Draco stopped halfway out of his jacket. So he had noticed. It kind of hurt when Professor Snape pointed out his flaws. But he was getting used to it after a month or so of being around him, and only him. Being on the run sucked if your only ally was Professor Severus Snape.

Although he doubted being on the run was ever any fun, no matter who you were with.

He finished undressing and went to get a glass of water before sitting down in front of the television Professor Snape had just turned on.

He was still getting used to his new Muggley lifestyle, and the he still held the television in awe. You could spread news so fast with that thing, a lot faster than with owls and newspaper. Like now. The news of this atomic bomb was the only thing that had been on since yesterday. It had happened on the outskirts of Ottery St. Catchpole where there was now a sealed-off crater with everything around it either dead or dying. Part of the town was gone and most of the people who lived there were in neighbouring hospitals. The more injured ones had been flown to London to the bigger hospitals, but those with lesser injuries were taken care of by nearby towns.

Draco finished his glass of water in one go. On the screen was a live broadcast of people evacuating the very town he and Professor Snape were in. He even recognized some streets.

'Curse those cameras.'

Draco looked at Snape.

'Yeah," he agreed, I would like to get out of here as well.'

'As long as the cameras are out there, we do not move from in here.'

Droco nodded. They did not want to get caught on camera. First of all, he did not want such a Muggle thing to be used on him. It was eerily similar to magic. Second of all, they did not want anyone to see them on TV. If the Order would see them on the news, they would be found right away. He didn't know if any of the Death Eaters ever watched that Muggle invention, but if they were smart, and a great many of them were, they had at least someone to do it for them. And if _they_ found out where Draco and Snape were hiding… He shuddered. He didn't want to think that far. They would either be killed on the spot or taken to answer to the Dark Lord himself, face to face. He shuddered again. Just the thought of the Dark Lord scared the hell out of him. He never wanted to face that… creature of a man again. Ever.

Professor Snape made a sudden move that woke Draco up from his thoughts. Something on the screen had caught his attention. The mass of people was growing bigger, and was on the verge of turning into a mob. People were beginning to hit each other in order to get out of there, and Draco couldn't help himself thinking that these stupid Muggles should know better than to inflict pain to each other under these circumstances. It was only a matter of time now, when the first real panic would start and blossom into hysteria.

'There, did you see?'

He had. In the crowd was a small spot with no people, which was filled as soon as he noticed it. But then it appeared again, just before the Muggles pushed their way into it again. And in the middle of it, he could see fiery red hair.

'The Weasley kid,' he said.

'Yes, and the idiot is pushing the crowd away with magic!'

'Weasleys have always been empty in their heads,' Draco commented disdainfully.

Professor Snape ignored him but said to himself 'they're almost here', and moved over to the door. When Draco looked away from the former professor and back to the TV, the redhead was no longer on screen. He only just had time to realise what Snape had meant by that comment when the older man suddenly opened the door and snatched the young redhead, pulling him inside the house and closed the door quickly and firmly after him.

* * *

I am panting heavily, staring wide eyed at a tall dark man who just rescued me from the crowd. But I don't feel safe. The man, whom I remember seeing earlier today, by the road, is angry at me. Very angry. I stand with my back and arms pressing into the wall. I wish I could back further away from him. He continues scolding me and questions my intelligence. My fright is turning to offense. Where did he get the right to question my ability to think?

'Do you hear me?!'

I feel ashamed and stupid now. Maybe that's where he got the right. I wasn't listening to anything he was saying to me. I swallow and try to relax. Let my arms down from the wall. Stop pressing my back to it like I'm trying to go through. That's when someone comes and takes the man's side, watching me as well. It's the same youngster as before. I remember both of them from when I woke up in the puddle by the road outside of the town. They had stopped and stared at me. Laughed at me. But not helped me. They just let me sit in my dirty puddle. And now they are staring again. I feel trapped.

'Are you both deaf and mute or are you ever going to say anything?' the older of the two is asking. Mocking. I look at him offended. He scoffs. 'Well, at least we know he's not deaf,' he says.

'I can talk!' I say to my own utter surprise. My mouth seems to have a life of its own.

'Amazing,' the man answers coldly. 'Congratulations.' And he turns away to sit behind the kitchen table as it were his work-desk. I can just imagine him sitting like that, in a big dark room, with the walls filled with flasks and books, and scrolls and weird items. It is not a nice image, and I shudder in my wet clothes. This is a bad man.

'So, are you going to tell us what the heck you were thinking, doing all that magic on a public Muggle street? Not to mention that you were in the middle of a Muggle crowd, and using the magic _on_ the Muggles?' His voice rose steadily with each word, filled with anger, and I cower under their pressure. 'The crowd was not too much to handle without magic. You did not have to use it.' His voice is icy. And I don't know what I have done wrong.

'I didn't do any...'

He slams his fist on the table, almost tipping the chair over when he springs to his feet.

'Don't you dare say you weren't aware of what you were doing!' he shouts at me, 'You are too old for that kind of accidents to happen, even under pressure!'

I stand to face him.

'I don't know what you are talking about,' I say to him, 'I didn't do anything wrong out there. In fact, I didn't do anything at all!' I clear my throat. My voice sounds raspy and unfamiliar. But I'm not sure I know what it's supposed to sound like. The boy, who's presence I had almost forgotten, stifled a laugh that said 'yeah-right', and the man stares daggers at me. He's about to shout at me some more, but I'm quicker.

'Who are you anyway to decide what I can and cannot do?' I say, 'I don't know you!'

I regret instantly what I said because they're both taken aback with surprise, and I realize that I don't know if I know them or not. Maybe I do know them. But that can't be; If I did, then they would have at least asked some questions when they saw me in the puddle. Right? I wonder why they look so surprised. Should I recognize them? Do I know them?


End file.
